Shimmerescent friendships

There are some friends we have that form part of our being. They define and comfort and better us in ways that our souls know best. We just float along for the ride...

One such friend wrote a poem about me that I had to share. It's excellent and defines the way we know each other. She rocks. Real friends, so few and far between, really make life worth living...

Holli seems like she is chocolate brown dotted about with silver feathers yet her heart beats poor man’s cloth

Holli seems like she is air-conditioned monster car yet her shoes are pink trotro shouting repent

Holli seems like she is red wine and chocolate martinis yet her hair is kasapreko and juice

Holli seems like she is pink and lime green yet underneath she is all the shimmeressent colors of an abalone shell

Sunday in Ghana

Tales of a Private Island

For most of us Westerners, the dream of having our own tropical island is just that - a dream.

Oh but to be a Lebanese family in West Africa...

This weekend we were invited to a farewell party for one of the Ambassadors to Ghana, on a friend's friends' island. Yes, not their house but their island.

We drove from the city along the one highway (read stretch of tarred road without numerous potholes) in Ghana, in a cavalcade of Diplomatic vehicles, out to the village of Ada. Here we found local boys waiting with the family's fleet of little boats, and the lot of us were taxied in groups along the coast of small basic fishing villages (in photo 1), out to the island. It is a gorgeous sandy place, with the river on one side and the ocean on the other... the only building is the family's gorgeous modern house, with windows everywhere and broken tiles in mosaics around the outdoor bar and patio and even in the washroom where an 8ft high Adam and Eve with the snake and apple are expertly created in a mural of broken mirror and colourful tiles...

We arrived on the little peer and were met by our generous hosts, and ushered up to the party which populated their yard - the majority of the island. The kids quickly headed off to join the others being pulled along by speedboats on the floating yellow donuts.

We spent the afternoon casually hobnobbing with the various Ambassadors and their wives, and other people of importance... until it was time for lunch and we were all led into the lounge where a massive buffet awaited the crowd. The 100 or so people barely made a dint in the offerings. The bar men floated among us, filling wine glasses and taking orders... all they needed were white gloves to evoke a movie scene in my mind.

I think of how we have been toying with the idea of leaving Ghana - moving back to 'civilized countries' where the electricity works and the water flows... then I realize there are just so many interesting aspects to our lives here... Where in Mississauga or Houston or London England would we enjoy a day at our friend's private island, complete with palm trees and cocktails and the warm sun above us? Sometimes it's fun to indulge, not to judge, to throw away the PC questions about what is fair and what is right and just join the priveleged few who really know how to enjoy.

I think we'll stay put a while longer and observe the many facets of life that are Ghana.